Explore how to measure success, the power of listening, and how a mission-driven company incorporates empathy at the heart of product development.
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Nicole Harris Roberts 0:00
Fair warning for our listeners today. This episode contains content related to self harm. If you or someone you know is struggling help is available by calling or texting 988 or sending a chat to 988 lifeline.org.
Nicole Harris Roberts 0:22
Welcome back to Product in Healthtech a community for product leaders by product leaders. I'm Nicole Harris Roberts, Director of Marketing at vinyl. Today we're going to dive deep into a discussion I had with Sonia Garcia, co founder and chief product officer at Amae Health. Amae Health provides psychiatry led integrated care via outpatient physical and behavioral health services at in person clinics. As an engineer and a designer, Sonia recently was recognized by Business Insider in its 30, under 40, healthcare leaders who are transforming the industry. We discussed holistic care for patients and families who are affected by severe mental illness. And she talks about the power of listening, how to measure success, and how her mission driven company incorporates empathy at the heart of product development. Let's get into the conversation.
Nicole Harris Roberts 1:14
Sonia, you are the co founder and chief product officer at Amae Health we are so thankful that you made time for the product in health tech community today. Welcome to the show. Of course they can go on really appreciate the feature. It's really exciting to see where my health is going and where you're kind of taking it. Tell our listeners a little bit about your story. Now you and I'll preface this by saying you can google Sonia Garcia and you will find a lot of interesting information. So I know you've gotten a various versions of your story out there already. For those who don't know, tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to co found this particular company.
Sonia Garcia 1:49
Definitely. I'll start with the very beginning of my background, my family's originally from Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and I grew up in South Texas. And it's largely Hispanic down there really great town known as McAllen. But when I was 16, I tragically lost my dad to suicide. And it's always hard to say, frankly .But it completely disrupted our family life, it disrupted our community, it was a really difficult thing to go through. I'm the oldest of five. So it was my mom, myself, me and my four siblings trying to battle and figure out how to properly move on what to do, we didn't really know about therapy, we didn't know about support or resources or grievance counselors, we didn't really have knowledge over how to seek help, and much less from who or where. And so we went out it alone. And it was a very difficult process. To the extent that one of my siblings, my brother in particular, I think, took it really hard. And ultimately, he ended up going through his own battles with mental illness.
Sonia Garcia 3:03
And schizoaffective disorder was what he was ultimately diagnosed. And, you know, within the family, we, at that time understood now what the worst case scenario would be if we did not get him the right treatment in time. And so it was quite a scramble. And also this, this really big determination, coupled with unfortunate frustration, to just get help. And so we went through several cycles of trying to access health systems, psychiatric hospitals, different, you know, community health centers and things and just being met time and time again, with really long wait lists are not a good fit, or really costly and prohibitive, you know, factors that ultimately weren't, you know, getting him through the doors. if I'm completely honest, we ultimately did not get the right care for him until we went back to Mexico. That was something that after the fourth or fifth, fifth hospitalization, well, we just said, this is enough. We're not we're nothing is changing, it's only getting worse. We're not finding the right level of resources here. And I found a clinic in Monterrey, Mexico. And that's where he got better and got stable and started returning to a little bit of normalcy. I'm super happy and proud to share that he just graduated with a master's in mechanical engineering this year. Wow. Congratulations, I think yeah, we got it. Yeah. It's huge. It's huge, right? Like that is huge. Yeah, to see just him battling and suffering and struggling to now he's thriving. He's living in Austin, Texas. And he's getting back on his feet and he's wanting to work as an engineer and obtained a master's from from UTRGV and so I'm, I couldn't be more proud and I couldn't be more grateful that you know, the treatment ultimately worked and it was a holistic type of model. where the family was incorporated. culturally competent care was being delivered? He was able to exercise, there was a nutrition plan, there was so many different aspects of his treatment that we're all working in tandem and working together to get him better. And it worked. Right. It was incredible. And so, you know, as a caregiver to him, that was something that I got to witness, you know, Front Row, front and center, and began understanding, oh, my goodness, when you integrate these components together, look at these shifts, when you first establish you know, a healthy sleeping pattern that begins to form a foundation, then you can add on, you know, better eating, then let's make sure that there's an exercise regimen applied, then, you know, yes, let's check on the medication and how well he's had hearing and how well that's working. But there are so many other factors and elements that play into this, and especially him being connected with family, we have a lot of families still on Mexico. And so it all came together in this really great like an incredible way that resulted in good change resulted in good outcomes resulted in him getting better. And that was absolutely one of the pinnacle moments where I said, I have to just dedicate my life to this. When I was 16, that was a very young turning point of you know, your, your teenager, you're figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. It led me into biomedical engineering to start. And so that was something where I was like, Oh, I have this strength and skill set in being really adept with problem solving and dealing in like calculated structures and having big challenges to take on, and thought that through biomedical engineering, I would have a really great platform to improve people's quality of life. And so I started with, you know, prosthetics and medical device design, and did that at Rice University, and moved into health strategy consulting. And that was after graduating where I was working with health systems, Medicaid, health plans, you know, gearing up on plans and strategies for future optimization, innovation and their next vision. And it was a really great opportunity. All the while that was happening in my career was where my brother was getting that support and care and going through his particular journey with mental illness. So balancing those two things, it was a fascinating dichotomy to be one in a professional setting, understanding what's top of mind for a lot of these executives, all of these big systems, where you know, are things breaking, getting an inside look, and running over and observing how this is put into practice, what type of care my brothers receiving, where the shortcomings were. And so I was fortunate to just have that simultaneously, and really do a lot of learning concurrently throughout that.
Nicole Harris Roberts 7:48
Absolutely. First of all, thank you for sharing your experience. These are not easy subjects to handle. They're not easy subjects to hear about. But when you start to share your story, you realized that there are more and more people out there who need to hear that? Well. Number one, they're not alone, you know, there are resources available nationally and locally. But you know, more importantly, you know, your experience in you have a professional experience where you're in this consulting firm, and you're working with the big executives, and they're thinking very high level about how do we serve large populations, right? And then you think about your brother, and bringing that to the heart, right?My next question is going to be all around empathy. And you're right there. I mean, I think it's very hard to do what you do without empathy. So can you speak to what in your view is kind of empathy? What is empathy is role in product development and product management?
Sonia Garcia 8:46
Such a good question. And one that definitely feels everything I do. I'll just provide some background following consulting, I went to Stanford, to do a master's program in engineering design impact within the School of Design. And I got to do a master's thesis focused on mental health innovation. And in there within the design school is where they have the school of thought and a lot of discipline applied to user centered design, and empathy driven design. And so I had learned and studied a lot about this, I lived it, but then I got formal training formal studies from Stanford within this and just uncovered, how it does it. You know, you don't have to have gone through what we went through as a family, you know, it doesn't have to be at that end of the spectrum, you can definitely be right to be in many different ways, shapes and forms, as you're building as you're designing as you're creating something. And it starts with understanding who your end user is, which is a hairier problem than you expect.
Nicole Harris Roberts 9:50
All those user experience researchers who are listening we see you
Sonia Garcia 9:56
it's really tough because there's people are so dynamic and you can think about one super user or one ideal optimal user. And then think about other areas in which others could benefit and other profile types and personas and you start crafting and creating and, you know, you can mock up so many different styles across this, of who's using this and how and what is their lifestyle like, but you don't get close to the reality until you're up front and center. And, you know, actually seeing these users in their day to day lives or getting FaceTime with them. And being as close as you can to understanding their needs, their pain points, what they're currently doing their workarounds, right, if there are no solutions in place, and that just gets so much empathy, because you are in their world for a day an hour, whether that's through, you know, an empathy interview, or you're on the ground doing observational interviews, or you're, you know, live date you have yourself and you are some of those end users or you know, like a jacent to the end user. And you just begin to foster so much empathy, which is so different from sympathy. Sympathy is where you have a feeling of, sorry, like, you feel bad for a situation, you can extend sympathy to say, you must be going through something really difficult. And I'm sorry, my deepest condolences, deepest sympathies go out to you. But you haven't taken the leap over the fence. It's kind of like you're saying it and you're at that, you're just you're just at that fence, you stopped right there. Empathy, totally tears down the fence and says, I'm coming in with you like I'm coming to the other side. And I'm helping to see what you're really going through. And I want to empathize and connect with that on a much deeper level, to understand you and to understand your experience.
Nicole Harris Roberts 11:47
Seeking that genuine understanding isn't that what, you know, great product pros want to do a particularly in health tech, I'd love to hear more about your process for kind of bringing in that voice of the customer or ideal user, throughout your your product development lifecycle. So how once you once you I mean, it, you're such a wonderful ambassador, for people who are, you know, suffering from mental illness, but also to be a caregiver? How do you incorporate those learnings into your product development process?
Sonia Garcia 12:26
A lot of it has to just do with getting out there and listening and getting the people that have been through this to dictate some of their journeys, and just openly trust and weigh in on what they've done and what they've gone gone through. When I started this work, and this has been many years building, right, and a lot of people reached out at the beginning because of what we went through as a family to say, Hey, we've gone through that as well, or what have you done? What resources can you point me to? Throughout my brother's journey as well, they said, Hey, I also have a loved one. And I'd like to understand how you're getting him help how you're getting treatment. And now the closer I've gotten into this work, and now within Am I a lot of people are saying, Hey, I, I myself have gone through this or I know a loved one who has, can I put you in touch? Can they share what their journey has been? And every time I get that opportunity? Absolutely, it doesn't matter what phase of where we're in, or what stage of the company we're at, it is so important to continuously be in taking some of those perspectives and specific journeys. And so what happens is, then I'll reach out with COVID, it was a little bit difficult, if I can do this in person, and I think that's absolutely the best thing you can do to see sit face to face with someone, look them in the eye, tell them you know, it's okay, this is a safe space for you to share what you've gone through. But otherwise, we'll book a zoom or at least a video conference set a time and then I'll just listen. And I'll put up maybe a figma board or a white digital whiteboard to say do you want to map out like how this experience has been for you? What are the different components helped me understand where it was the hardest helped me understand where you would last and frustrated? What really broke you How did you feel, you know, toward the clinical setting toward your family toward those who were responsible for and it is opening conversation where you're so let into their world and their perspective on what's taking place in their life. And, you know, you literally lifting all the covers up to say, wow, it's not just I went into a clinic to fix the medication came out. It is so many of the details of how I felt whether I had a sense of control or not how I was treated in the small exchanges. Who was I accompanied with within the patient room? Did I go through an intensive outpatient experience? Or was it a partial hospitalization? And where did I end up after that? What happened when I left who was there for me, like, Did you adhere to treatment or not? And so to get these conversations, it it unlocks your worldview and gets you so deep into what the individual experiences and I do this a lot from the patient side from those who have gone through the system, but it's also equally important to understand it from the clinical lens. And so we've brought together a really great team of advisors. And we have a great CMO, Dr. Scott fears as well as a Medical Director of Behavioral Health, Dr. Gary Tsai, and their experience in clinical settings and in trying to imbued in integrated, you know, whole person care, or multidisciplinary, compassionate, comprehensive wraparound services, substance abuse disorder, care and treatment. And so you need to learn about that too, because there's so many intricacies that they've missed throughout the years of their expertise, and of being with hundreds of patients trying to do this and trying to get them to adhere to treatment, trying to get them to get to a behavior change. And so I think it's also important that you weigh not just the patient and experience but you also understand the other side of that coin, which is what happens in the system, what happens in clinical settings. And and so from our advisors from the Medical Director CMO, right, that's who we also source a lot of that input from as we design and build.
Nicole Harris Roberts 16:03
Very important to see both sides. It's surprising how, you know, I loved what you were saying about asking the patient, how did you feel when x happened when you did this? And similarly, how did the clinician feel when they got the referral? And maybe they maybe there's a blocker that you didn't know about? And without talking to them? You You couldn't have possibly known? It seems maybe how hard could it be? Well, turns out that it's pretty hard because of some silly reason are, you know, it's very revealing to see how they feel when having to do this at the volume that they're doing it with the type of compassion that they continue to display. patient after patient that is not easy. I mean, so what are some of the kind of unique considerations you have, when you're looking at, given how sensitive your customers are? And given how sensitive the you know, anytime we work with substance abuse issues, that it's a lot more complicated, and I don't think anybody would accuse people who work with severe mental illnesses is having an easy and easy job. It's always complicated, lots of edge cases, how do you nevertheless achieve sort of a product market fit for Amae Health.
Sonia Garcia 17:23
So first and foremost, we leverage a lot of tried and true methodologies and ways of treatment that exists today. So Dr. Scott fields are cmo works within the VA. And he's integrated this model of whole person care, which brings in a multidisciplinary care team does a lot of high touch wraparound services, where we also look to for examples or act teams, Assertive Community Treatment Programs and teams, where you're integrating into social services, community resources, really looking at it from the SCOH social determinants of health lens. And there's a lot of best practices in those non for profit settings. However, they're stuck within those structures stuck within the VA applied to that specific population, or, you know, in a little bit fragmented, disjointed, non for profit settings. And so we're bringing that together with best practices, bringing together the right folk, and then enhancing that model with a layer of technology that's really purpose built for what we're doing within this integrated model of bringing the physical health, right, the primary care side, the mental, behavioral health side and psychiatric aspect, and then the community side and services and support, and reintegration into those social structures and community that's so so important for true recovery. And adding that technology and adding the right team in a comprehensive way to really meet those needs. So that incorporates peers and the role of peers. And like I said, a lot of empathy that's derived from there a lot of trust building that happens within that. health coaches, I alluded as well earlier to the importance of exercise, and regimen and sleep and nutrition. We have, it's like psychiatry led, but we also have the social workers that are engaging in group therapy, individual therapy, all of the different components that are coming in together under one system, which we own and can control and can design for very intentionally, to get the right outcomes. And that's another thing that's really important for us, is the behavioral health industry. And this aspect of healthcare lacks in standardized measurement and tools, if you can make an analogy out to primary care, you know, when you have a fever, because there's a number that you can signal to say, I have a fever and you can also even then, say if it's above or below a certain number, I know if I should go to the ER or go to your nearest hospital or Right, right. Yeah. Within behavioral health, mental illness like you don't have that and it is so difficult and a lot of it is self reported. A lot of it is lack of measurement altogether. And so we haven't been big movement and priority to bring in measurement based care, and infuse that into all of our systems and processes. So that we are ensuring and have this regimented way of collecting a lot of that information of tracking toward outcomes. And where possible, we're iterating on the treatment at a high frequency rate to say, hey, this isn't working, here's the proof points that we need. How do we make the next decision? All right, now let's, let's have some things change and move and be really, really flexible, because that's very important as well, the individualization that you bring into this, while trying to have a certain standard of care applied to everyone. People are coming in with very specific prior traumas, couplings of diagnoses, they're also comorbidities, they're certain, you know, goes and no goes within their cultural domains and where they come from and their backgrounds. And you have to honor all of that as a whole person to really get them to abide by a certain care treatment plan, and just have a lot of respect applied into that as well. "Amae" is this Japanese concept, my co founder status, and I really fascinated by just all these step Japanese principles and the way in which they uphold their and protect and care for their community. And in my eyes, this concept that you can't go at it alone, you need the support, and, and ability to depend on those around you in order to build yourself back up. So that fuses into everything that we do with, you know, it's not up to the patient themselves, to come out this and be responsible and put all the pieces together and go back and forth and manage appointments. And man, it's hard enough as it is, and they are struggling with their mind. And so when you have that you you have to imagine how difficult in this feeder rationalized through any type of decision much less have, you know, the foresight to plan much less to have the ability to abide by a schedule, or care for yourself and do the basics even right? Have you have you? Have you eaten today? Right? Yeah. Yeah, my brother wouldn't eat wouldn't shower or wouldn't sleep? If we had to have be there and say, look, let's try. Let's try again, there was there was a lot of compassion met with persistence. And I think that's what we're also trying to bring to life here.
Nicole Harris Roberts 22:18
Compassion plus persistence. Yeah. And the toll and and community banding together, finding that tribe of yours, finding that community. I mean, you know, that concept of inclusion comes to mind, can you speak a little bit about culturally competent care here, for example, the experience that your brother had in Monterey versus in the United States, and he thrived in Mexico. So tell me, how, what was different. You think about his care experience in Mexico versus the care experience United States, I mean, there are lots of differences, right. But in terms of being like, just under like, him being seen and understood.
Sonia Garcia 23:02
Yeah, and this is my opinion, and my take, right, but I feel that the US is quite individualistic. It's kind of every man for himself and individual achievement and accomplishment. And, you know, 18, you're fly out of the nest, and you need to be independent, and you need to be on your own. In Hispanic culture, and where we come from family is so important. Your grandmother lives with you, as she gets older, you care for the most vulnerable, you have a big household and you're not expected to leave the home right away. You're not, you know, quote, unquote, kicked out or need me to leave, it's always a place you can return to and so the value and importance of family and blood and community it is so so deeply entrenched within our culture. And the first thing that happened and this was the most impactful experience for me, it brought me to my knees was we drove all the way down to Mexico. We had taken them out of a psychiatric unit in the in the US in Houston, drove all the way to Mexico, get to Monterey, get into the clinic, immediately. Two nurses come rushed to the car, grab him because they knew that there was some mania and psychosis still taking place and grab him, take him into, you know, behind doors just like Gary to get them stabilized. They let us know that he needs to be sedated for a time given that he's been so many hours in this exacerbated state. outcomes the lead psychiatrist from behind closed doors just to the entryway and greet says and says Hi, I'm Dr. Jose Castille Louis, I'm going to be in charge of your brother great like your son. This is my clinic. Welcome. He says welcome and he says step into my office. I'd like to talk to you.
Sonia Garcia 24:49
I'm tearing up,
Nicole Harris Roberts 24:49
I can feel the love coming through and the compassion coming through.
Sonia Garcia 24:52
And this is the first time that I had seen a psychiatrist, face to face that was responsible for my brother's life. I'm sorry.
Nicole Harris Roberts 25:02
That is everything, Sonia. That is everything that is that is everything.
Sonia Garcia 25:08
I mean, in all our years of trying to get them help we had never seen from the psychiatrist. We had seen nurses, we had seen social workers we had seen others were responsible. And under private practice, there was some exchange and interaction. But he sat us down and for 45, whole minutes, he told us who he asked me, who's Robert Garcia, he just like, said his name. And he wanted to understand what he had gone through and what he liked and what he disliked, and what were his slipped experiences. And I've never had that before. So it just got us to our knees. And it was such a relief. I knew he was in good hands. You know, I knew there was someone there a human that was caring for a human. And that was just all I was ever asking for I'm looking for. And it gave us so much peace and it was to unite. Istop crying Sorry.
Nicole Harris Roberts 26:04
It's this is one of the most important experiences in his life and your life to his family. Thank you No, thank god like he was able to find someplace where he is seen as a person as a whole person, not somebody who needs his med adherence plan adjusted
Sonia Garcia 26:20
It made all the difference. So you bet your bottom dollar that's the kind of care and the compassion and the inclusion and the consideration that we're bringing to Amae.
Nicole Harris Roberts 26:31
Beautiful, I will share. If you don't mind, you know, we have I have some loved ones who have gone through similar experiences. And your story is really moving to me thank you again for I just want to say thank you again for sharing that. You never know who's struggling. And, you know, people who are caregivers, or friends who have family members going through this don't wear it on their sleeve. So well.
Sonia Garcia 26:55
I'm sorry to hear that. And it's unfortunate how common it is. And thank you for sharing, but it is almost every conversation. It doesn't matter who I'm talking to on what end of the system, someone comes out and will tell me I also have a loved one someone I love is someone I've lost someone I've you know, it just and those are stories that stay with me, I don't forget when someone says hey, I'd like to openly share that I know someone as well, that someone in my home that my significant other that I lost a sudden I lost a daughter. And it really fuels the fire. I mean, you know, I use that just as little coals to say, keep burning this fire there needs to be changed. We're way overdue for a new standard of care. Yes. And this is what we're here to do. We're really trying to redefine how severe mental illness is treated throughout in America.
Nicole Harris Roberts 27:36
Where do you think Amae is With that? I mean, you have so you're launching your products, can you share any, if you're willing, any recent wins or things you want to tell our listeners about that you're really excited about that am I is doing?
Sonia Garcia 28:02
Yeah, I would love to with Amae we are delivering brick and mortar care. I don't know if I also said that explicitly. But it's very important for this population, that you provide an actual physical center and location at the human to human connection and care taking place. And we're opening our first clinic in Los Angeles. And so there's a great deal of need there. And we're in conversations with several health systems that are also going to be communicating back and forth with us on the patients that are flowing through their systems. And so we're opening our doors there and and hopefully, earning the right to grow after that. But again, within our model, we're being very intentional with its in person. You don't want to rush too quickly. These are people's lives, you have to be very intentional with the type of Senator that you put up the type of care that you provide. And only after you get that right, do you merit the right to continue growing and scaling from there?
Nicole Harris Roberts 29:02
Right. Well, congratulations. I mean, I'm going to say congratulations in advance, because as I always say, we in product live in the future. So to me, this has already happened and I'm sure you must be counting down the days the weeks before this happens, right?
Sonia Garcia 29:18
Yeah, totally.
Nicole Harris Roberts 29:19
Yeah. Amazing. That's a huge milestone. So as you drive toward your this milestone with your team, what are some what are some lessons learned do you think would apply to the product and health tech community in general, just from from your position as a, you know, think of it as as a co founder, or and or as a chief product officer?
Sonia Garcia 29:41
Yep. I would say particularly when I can speak from the lens of the early stage startup, really in the specific to the healthcare field. You got to get close to the end user you cannot be afraid to be upfront, get personal, really understand. It makes all the difference. In particular, with how many solutions are coming out, which is great, I would say the more the merrier. Healthcare has a lot of room for innovation and improvement. And it is still unfortunately, a quite a fragmented system. And so it's great to see so many new innovative players within this space, but take the time to understand first build Second, it makes all the difference in a lot of the ways in which you make assumptions, make decisions, what you end up prioritizing within the business, it's night and day, and you're building something right from the get go, or as close to write as you can from the get go versus it being an afterthought or versus saying, well, they need this. So they'll have to use it.
Nicole Harris Roberts 30:42
Right?
Sonia Garcia 30:44
Not exactly, it's almost easier to stick to their old ways than adopt, you know, this new care system or solution. So I would say that's very important. And then within this stage, the only constant is change. And so how can you be a big, big proponent of living in that continuously changing environment and stay up to speed with all the different changes and new information that continuously flows in things that break things that need to be iterated upon, it is something where it's not just one and done, and like we built it and check the box. Everything about this continuously ebbs and flows has, you know, even like community to community right within our markets that we want to expand to I mean, our dream is to be nationwide one day, but every market looks so different. And you understand what are the idiosyncrasies beneath that? What are the resources and current support structures? Or the community health centers? Are there psychiatric units in place, you know, for us, and there are differences all throughout, and also the norms, the standards, even the regulatory structure changes state to state. And so, with that, you know, we're not building something that's one size fits all, it's definitely built with an intention and that individualization, that is merited to really deliver personalized, you know, patient centric, compassionate and integrated care.
Nicole Harris Roberts 32:10
Integrated care, and also, you know, regionally appropriate based on the resources that are actually available there.
Sonia Garcia 32:17
Definitely
Nicole Harris Roberts 32:18
Yeah, it's interesting to look at to think about your first market in Los Angeles, that there that you know, as a large population, having the infrastructure there is key. And your your service offerings and your product are part of that environment as well. Do you have in the spirit of being changed? Ready? Okay. What are some changes or trends you are seeing in your specific industry or in healthcare in general that you think are that you're excited about?
Sonia Garcia 32:44
When that I would say that's fascinating to me right now is because we're going through so much of this change worldwide is the virtual versus in person care debate? And what's more efficacious? And when does that apply? And one thing is access and other things, outcomes, you're thinking about different lenses all throughout. And I think we're coming to that recognition that there's a time and a place for this to continue existing that yes, access is important, but it only get to so far. And then understanding there's a need for still in person care settings. For some of these conditions, like severe mental illness, right, where it's almost like if, if you were trying to deliver oncology, could you do that just virtually like, no, like they need chemo, there's very specific treatments, there's a lot of support and needed visits that need to take place by having the person they're with you in a specific place. And so I think that world has been shifting where we may have over indexed on virtual only when we were beholden to that primarily due to COVID, and for safety and response in America. And now we're coming back to saying, what's that happy medium? And how do we land in a balance that still puts, you know, the right effective care, with the patient, with the clinicians with everyone else involved in the right manner. And also, this this specialty holistic care, I think what I'm starting to witness as well is that for too long, there may have been too many band aids, because there was so much opportunity, there's so much fragmented, you know, aspects of healthcare that make it really hard, and that unfortunately, didn't keep up with technology, innovation, or different regulatory and policy changes. And you can definitely add in a lot of band aids. And it does solve some immediate needs, but I think there's being more weight, more weight is being applied to what is that end to end look like? And let's own all of it, so that there's more control. And so there's a sustainable system. You know, I'm caring for all the different needs in one setting in one place. Oh, man, that makes all the difference. And it makes way more sense. And you look at different systems throughout the world and you're like, oh, yeah! Why did we divide out all these things in so many different pieces, when you know, it's all one mind one one body, one person.
Nicole Harris Roberts 35:02
And I'm actually really energized by what you guys are doing, and hope that other people in the community will be energized as well to take what their passion is, even if it's a personal one to one experience within their family that they can take and use that to fuel that fire to use your words, to deliver more and better in health tech, because the world needs you.
Sonia Garcia 35:28
Thank you for your kind words. And so I'm not taking for granted at all. It's it's wonderful that we brought together a team that truly cares for the right reasons. And I know that when you grow and scale, and that might become a little bit harder that everyone has that shared, lived experience or understands that from a loved one. I don't expect that. However, I really appreciate that and, and to the extent that that's continued to be weaved into the fabric of the core of Amae. That's something I'd love to hold as long as possible.
Nicole Harris Roberts 35:58
I love this conversation. Sonia Garcia, from Amae Health. Thank you so much for being with us today.
Sonia Garcia 36:06
Definitely. Thank you for the time and the platform. It was such a pleasure.
Nicole Harris Roberts 36:10
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